


Scars and Stories.

by Beckon



Category: Mortal Kombat (Video Games)
Genre: Exploring scars, F/M, Forehead Touching, Kissing, Minor confessions, Requited Love, Scarred!Kenshi, Scarred!Sonya, coming to terms, sensual touching, showering together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-20 18:19:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4797542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beckon/pseuds/Beckon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"People don't usually just 'walk in' when the General is showering," Sonya reminded, as fingers tugged on her mud-coated boots before she managed to pull herself out of them. "I won't peek if that's what you're worried about."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scars and Stories.

She hated Outworld.

She really fucking did.

If it wasn't the unbalanced, chaotic rulers causing mayhem for her, it was the unstable mess of forced realm merging that was kicking her ass.

...

The fact that she was caked with sweat and mud, not to mention covered in blood that wasn't hers, only made her hate it more.

Fingers tugged on her dirt-caked zipper, before she finally managed to strip off her mud-soaked jacket. It was heavy with dirty rainwater and it made a disgusting noise when she tossed it into the nearby uniform bin. Even her undershirt had gotten soaked by the heavy rain that had poured down on her for three hours straight. It clung to her sticky skin, which only made it more difficult to pull off; but when she managed to get out of it, she balled it up and threw it into the bin with her jacket.

It was almost two in the morning now, Earthrealm time anyways, and the coolness in the SF shower house made her realize just how filthy her skin had gotten. Any skin that was left exposed by her uniform, which wasn't much, was covered in a smeared coating of mud and sweat.

First, it was the spontaneous weather change, which resulted in the heavy rains that made it difficult for their equipment function properly; Outworld had shitty reception to begin with, so the rain didn't help their case.

But once the rain started, it didn't stop, which then lead to a mudslide that her team was not prepared for.

Their mission was to hunt down the remaining Black Dragon members in that area- simple enough. And while her team did so, successfully, it came at the price of running rambo through the Kuatan jungle. Hence, why she was such a mess right now.

All she wanted was a shower, and a cup of coffee to end the night with.

And right now, she had a fresh pot brewing in her office.

Sonya turned briefly at the sound of approaching footsteps and grimaced at the sad, mirror state of her partner. Kenshi was just as equally soaked and mud-slathered as she was; hell, at this point, she'd almost consider it a perk that he couldn't physically see himself right now.

"It's late, and we're both filthy," Sonya started, as she pulled her dog tags free from her neck and hung them on a nearby wall hook.

"You're right about that," he replied; he pulled off his almost ruined overcoat with some struggle, before he let it join with her jacket in the nearby bin.

She humored him with a brief chuckle at his interrupting comment, and worked off her soaked tank-top. "Since we're running on the reserve generators right now, why don't we just share a shower?"

The base ran at all hours, but normally during the night and early morning they switched over to the reserve generators to prevent overheating in their main ones. It helped them conserve energy throughout the night, and kept them mostly off radar. It wasn't difficult to switch back over either- fifteen seconds was all they needed to re-power the entire base.

"You're not worried about someone walking in?" Kenshi questioned in response, as he began the tedious process of removing his gloves and body armor.

Just watching him do that much made her glad that she had removed her gauntlets and leg plating on the ride back from Outworld; she had them waiting in her office to be cleaned at a later time. She made a mental note to remember that she had her drone waiting in there as well- and that she might need to do some maintenance work on it for potential water damages.

"People don't usually just 'walk in' when the General is showering," Sonya reminded, as fingers tugged on her mud-coated boots before she managed to pull herself out of them. There had to be at least two solid inches of mud coating them completely- which certainly explained the mess she had created just by walking on the tiled floors. Christ, she felt sorry for the clean-up crew who would be coming in in a few hours. She kicked her boots against the wall, keeping them out of the way, before she stripped off her belt and tossed it over with them. "I won't peek if that's what you're worried about."

"I just assumed that you wouldn't," he remarked, "unless this is your way of telling me otherwise."

Sonya scoffed lightly, drawing a chuckled response from him as he carefully removed his discolored blindfold. "Don't get your hopes up," she retorted, as she stripped off the rest of her uniform and tossed it into the bin. Stepping into the closest shower cell, she twisted the showerhead on and already felt relieved by the cold water that came running out of it.

Even though she had been doused in the freezing rains of Outworld, she could still appreciate a cold shower for what it was worth.

Although she was a little more grateful for the gradual change from cold to lukewarm to hot.

Fingers immediately began to unbraid her hair as quickly as they could, and she grimaced at the mess of mud that had clumped into it. It made unraveling the long, blonde strands a hassle, but, thankfully for her, the mud came out with relative ease. Pushing her fingers through the brief tangles, she made sure that any rock or small twig had been pulled out, before she loosely twisted the strands back together. After a rough mission like that, she highly considered having most of her braid cut off- it would certainly make moments like this easier.

Rolling her neck, she let the now warm water relax the stiff muscles of her shoulders and upper body.

Despite going in against four Black Dragon members at once, she had escaped with little to no injuries. She had a couple of bruises, and a few sore spots, but nothing drew blood this time- thankfully.

Although she did lose her balance during part of the chase, so she was almost certain she pulled a muscle in her back from it.

Sonya paused when she heard him finally join her, and waited until he took up the showerhead behind her before she went back to what she was doing. There were the communal showers for the soldiers next door, which were the usual, one big room that could fit two or three units at a time. And then there was this building, which had more private stalls for certain soldiers, or ranked guests.

She preferred using this one though, mostly because of the dual showerheads available; and after dedicating a majority of her life to the Special Forces, she deserved her own damn shower cell.

...

She had to admit, it was a little harder than she thought to not look back behind her. She was always hyper aware of her surroundings and who was with her; it was a trait that she quickly had to pick up in this kind of business. There was always danger and the possibility of death waiting around every corner for those who didn't keep their eyes opened.

But... she did feel safe with him close by her.

They had worked together for over two decades now- well, on and off on some cases. Sometimes he went off and did his own thing for a few months, occasionally for a year or two; and other times, he never left her side.

Kenshi was one of her best partners.

When Jax was out of commission for all those years, she always had him to back her up.

And while they had never actually shared a shower before, they had certainly seen each other in worse situations; and they had been around one another for so long that such a case was hardly something to bat an eye at. Two decades of hunting down terrorists and being ambushed by assassins had forced them into odd circumstances, but nothing that was enough to deter their professional relationship.

That wasn't to say that... she was against having a more personal relationship with him though.

Neither of them had really hidden the fact that they were willing to give it a shot, but... It seemed like there were always other, more complicated circumstances that got in the way. Although she wasn't really sure if the circumstances were there to begin with, or if they had simply made it more complicated for themselves. They each had a lot of baggage that they would be bringing into a relationship, and... well, it wasn't like they would be the only ones affected either.

They both had families to think of and consider the feelings of.

She supposed that was why they never took it further than a casual relationship.

Her hands moved to massage her still throbbing shoulders, which she had hoped would've stopped hurting by now. It didn't help that her back was still tight with the tension that continued to set in against her bones.

It felt like she was getting too old for this line of work. She didn't quite bounce back as fast as she used to- certain injuries kept her out of the field for longer than she would've liked. Unfortunately, there was simply no one certified to take her place- at least, not yet. And at this point, as far as she was concerned, she didn't see herself resigning from this position at all.

She would either die naturally, or get killed before the option of retirement was given to her.

Giving out a quiet sigh, Sonya closed her eyes, and turned around to let the hot water stream against her back- hoping it would help relax the pulled muscle that continued to make itself known. Hands moved up to the back of her neck as she tried to massage out the sore knot at the base of it.

The sound of steady, running water was soothing against the silence of the building; she could already feel her stress levels easing back down to normal- which was exactly what she needed.

Sonya slowly rolled her neck once more for good measure, before she opened her eyes at a sound that resonated in the distance. It sounded like one of the trucks backfired or something, which didn't surprise her; some of those vehicles were running on their last mile.

"You'd think they could've pick a better time to start doing maintenance on those things," Kenshi remarked- no doubt his sensitive hearing had been put off by the sudden noise.

She often times wondered if his need to get away from the SF base was in due to the constant stream of sounds that ran day and night. If it wasn't soldiers doing gun checks or maintenance on the turrets, it was the soldiers working on the trucks and always causing several mishaps with the engines. He could tune the noise out, she knew that for certain, but... sometimes even that was a little too much.

"You're telling me," Sonya muttered, as she looked over to him out of habit; she always made a note to look at whoever was speaking to her.

And despite her promise not to peek, she watched as Kenshi pulled himself into an upward stretch- pulling and flexing the muscles of his back and shoulders as he did so. It didn't immediately occur to her what she was doing, as she took note of his rather impressive muscular structure first- but it certainly didn't take long before she realized her mistake.

She locked up for a brief moment, watching as he rolled his neck before he dropped his arms back down; he carefully rolled his shoulders and partly worked out his biceps as he dropped them, possibly to free himself of a few tight kinks that had settled in.

Despite knowing that she should've turned back around- that it would've been the honorable thing to do- Sonya still let her eyes linger for just a few seconds too long.

She blamed it on the sudden sense of surprise.

...

The entirety of his back, from his hips to his shoulders, was covered in thick scars.

Most of them appeared to be from a weapon of some kind, but there were a specific few she could pick out as having been from a burn; either a result of fire or acid, the burns left corroded, vein-like scars that stretched across his ribs and lower back.

And it was certainly hard not to notice the jagged cluster of scars that littered the base of his neck. She was pretty certain that she knew exactly what had left that injury, but... she didn't want to get ahead of herself.

Of most, if not all, of the fighters that she knew, she had never seen anyone with this type of collection.

He was always so calm-natured that it was hard to imagine him getting into that many heated conflicts- especially ones bad enough to leave scars. Now, within the past two decades, he had been dealing with consistent aggravated attacks from the Red Dragon clan. At one point, he had had both skilled assassins and hired terrorists in combined forces hunting him- and it didn't matter where he was, they'd always find a way to find him.

Hell, she could even pick out a few scars that she personally recognized; and from those, she could pick a handful that she was able to place an opened wound and a SF mission to.

But... most of the scars on his back seemed to predate those attacks.

They were faded and worn down; their once vibrant, red shade was now a more natural color that helped them blend in against his skin.

...

The odd thing too was that, for as long as she had known him, he always wore protective clothing and armor. He rarely showed any skin asides from his face- and even then, his blindfold covered a good portion of that as well. So it was a little difficult to understand how exactly all of this scarring came to be.

"Can I help you?"

The sudden question snapped her back into focus, and she realized then that she had definitely been looking for far too long. "Sorry," Sonya briefly muttered, as she quickly turned back around- feeling just a slight sense of heat in her face now. "It was an accident, and... then I got curious," she offered, running her fingers back through her slightly twisted hair, which she pulled to drape over her left shoulder. "It won't happen again."

Kenshi offered a brief laugh at her apology. "I told you that I was very arrogant and reckless when I was young."

She did remember him telling her that, but... even she had to admit that it was hard to believe. He wouldn't so much as step out of line if it meant that someone else would get hurt in the process. And while he had gotten increasingly protective over the years, no doubt because of Takeda's enrollment in the Special Forces... He hardly went out looking for a fight.

He was more diplomatic than anything- unless it involved the Red Dragon Clan; that in itself was a free for all.

"I figured you meant that you enjoyed cheating death and breaking the law," Sonya remarked.

"I assure you, I did, but... those were really only a small part of my youth experience," he replied. "I used to pick fights with everyone I came across- enemy and ally alike. Sometimes I was the stronger one, and sometimes I wasn't. Regardless though, I always walked away with a battle trophy."

She could certainly see that now. "Yes well... you've certainly made yourself a fine collection," she offered, as she tried to scrub the fresh image of him out of her mind; although, she had to admit that he was still in great shape for a man his age. She pressed her fingers into her still sore shoulders and worked to ease the knot out of her muscles- hoping the motion would distract her. "Unless, of course, you're ashamed of them now."

"Every moment of my life has brought me up to this point, so I can't say that I'm ashamed of any of them," Kenshi answered. "I learned a lot of life lessons from them, so it's hard to hold a grudge. Although, I will admit that they can be a nuisance from time to time, but... I have gotten used to them with the years."

"I see," Sonya noted.

It wasn't like she didn't know where he was coming from.

She was riddled with her own collection of scars that ached and tugged at her skin every now and again. Earning her title in the Special Forces wasn't easy, and unfortunately it made her a quick target on everyone's hit list. If it wasn't someone trying to sabotage the Special Forces, it was someone trying to use her to force an Earthrealm merge. She had survived far too many assassination attempts to be surprised by them anymore.

Even now, as she massaged her shoulders, she could feel the knotted tissue of one or two scars beneath her fingers.

"I have plenty more if you're still curious."

...

Of course he would shoot her an offer like that.

She had already gotten her curiosity worked up, and she would be lying if she said she wasn't still curious about his scars... Hell, part of her was almost convinced that maybe a small portion of his arrogance was still intact, and being played right now. He knew they intrigued her, so she would be the perfect person to show them off to- maybe even brag about them if he was feeling cocky.

"That's quite alright," Sonya started, hoping that maybe she could convince herself to decline the offer. She was intrigued, sure, but this was certainly passing into a level of intimacy that she wasn't positive she could handle; seeing him nearly gutted and bleeding out was a more common normal for her than... a situation like this. Still, she failed to convince herself to let it go. "... You offering?"

"You've already seen them, so it's not like I can pretend that you don't know about them," Kenshi replied. "And to be honest, it's been years since I last talked about them, so who knows, it might be a nice change to see what I can remember."

Somehow, she wasn't surprised by his own sense of genuine curiosity.

"Well, you've already put it out there, and it's not like I can say no to that," she spoke; she hesitated slightly, before she turned back around to face him. Her eyes briefly skimmed his back once more, and she caught herself not so much paying attention to his scars, but... to everything else around them. "I promise I'll at least keep my eyes above the waist."

"Are you certain about that?" he seemingly teased. "What was it you said earlier about not getting my hopes up?"

Sonya frowned briefly at his tone, but she also knew that there was no sense in defending herself here. "Well, as long as you don't get anything else up, we shouldn't have any further problems."

"How did this get turned around to me?"

They were both adults here; it wasn't like some minor nudity would cause that big of a deal.

It wasn't like she hadn't seen an entire SF unit race out of the showers when the panic alarm sounded- most of whom had forgone grabbing a towel on the way out. She still wished she could scrub those images out of her mind.

It was going to be... strange, sure, but this certainly wasn't the worst scenario they had found themselves in.

She watched as he turned around to face her.

And for a second time, he surprised her with a collection of scars that now littered his chest. If it was possible, there was actually a higher concentration of them on his chest than there were on his back. She took her time in looking them over, once more spotting a few she recognized, while remaining largely uninformed about the rest. As faded as some of them were, it was still pretty evident that they had once been deep wounds that had punctured through his ribs and over his abdomen.

Sonya stepped forward for a closer look, before she slowly let her fingers brush against one of the scars that had caught her eye. It was slightly smaller than her palm, and rested about halfway up the right side of his ribcage. Judging by the uneven edges, it must not have been a pretty injury; and judging by the lack of texture under her fingertips, it was certainly a decade or two old.

She didn't realize that she had never asked for proper consent to touch him.

"Gods, just how many people did you fight exactly?"

"I've lost count," Kenshi offered, not the least bit bothered as her fingers slowly moved to the scar above it. "But well within the triple digits at least."

His confident answer was baffling.

"You're shitting me," Sonya insisted.

"Like I said, I often times went looking for fights in the wrong places," he answered, with a brief laugh. "I'm not exactly sure how I'm lucky enough to still be alive in this day and age."

Yes well, he was certainly right about that.

"I'm sure with how long you've been in the Special Forces, you have just as many."

Sonya glanced up to him at the remark, and dwelled back to her own collection for a moment.

...

She realized that she was being rather rude by not allowing him to see hers.

"You're not wrong," she started, as she stepped forward once more- this time taking his hand and bringing it up to her neck. She moved his fingers so that they brushed against the thick scar that cut across her throat. It was one of her more... grotesque ones, and the placement of it made it a little difficult to hide. On some days, she masked it down under a layer of concealer and a high-collar; and on others, she left it as it was. "Here's one for you if you're curious."

Kenshi seemed taken back by the gesture, but his curiosity, much like hers, simply took over.

She felt his fingers gently move over the elongated scar, which remained jagged and stretched over her skin; it had smoothed out and faded with the years, but that didn't make it any less noticeable. He gingerly traced it underneath sensitive fingers, taking in every inch of it.

She had to admit that she was surprised by how soft his hands were.

It would seem obvious, with a fighter like him, for his hands to be rough and callous, and yet... they weren't. At least not entirely. Then again, his hands were his second function of seeing, so she could understand why he would take good care of them.

"That is a very concerning placement," Kenshi spoke.

"It's been almost eleven, maybe twelve, years now since I got it," Sonya remarked, feeling the gentle way he moved over the scar again and again- potentially just as intrigued by it as she had been by his.

"What happened?"

"Kano's classic necktie," she answered, "that, thankfully, failed."

"How did you avoid that?" Kenshi started, "and how is it that this the first time I'm hearing about it?"

"Sheer fucking luck saved me," she offered, catching the brief laugh that escaped him. "And let's face it, there's been hundreds of reports of me fighting Kano, and hundreds of false reports saying he killed me. It's impossible to know which ones are true; you probably heard about him slitting my throat at one point or another, and dismissed it as gossip."

He seemed to think her remark over, before he offered an acknowledging shrug. "You're probably right."

Sonya chuckled, before she guided his hand down to her right shoulder; she ran his fingers along the distorted scar that covered the curve of her shoulder and stretched around to her back. "This one's from an enemy grenade in Germany that went off too close to me; it nearly blew my shoulder completely off. I was in the burn unit for weeks while the medical staff tried to scrape the dead skin off and stitch the new skin on. That was partly my fault though- I'm not exactly the greatest patient in the world."

"I know that from experience."

It felt almost stupid to admit that she preferred the way he lingered against her scars, taking in every physical detail that he could of them. His fingers occasionally brushed against the unmarred skin surrounding them- more than likely just to make a small comparison between the two different textures.

It was a nice change from the usual gaping looks, or horrified questions she received on a semi-daily basis; most of the annoying reactions came from people she didn't even know.

Although sometimes the snide remarks came from SF Generals who controlled other stations, or were from different countries. It was usually the ones who stayed in their offices for a majority of their military careers. They didn't like to get out and personally fulfill missions, or do their proper jobs; they just liked the paycheck that came with the rank.

Hell, she once had a school teacher of Cassie's blurt out something about her 'hideous condition'; and then the man figured out who she was, and what she did, and shut up real quick about it.

But Kenshi... he treated each scar with a sense of respect as he guided his fingers over them.

Sonya took his hand once more, and carefully moved it down to her ribs- allowing him to feel the small cluster of scars that clung to them. Even she had to admit that she rather liked having him explore her scars while she confessed to the stories behind them. "These came from shrapnel when a RPG hit one of the stationary bases I was working from in Pakistan. I ended up picking out about a dozen metal scraps from between my ribs."

"I'm surprised that's all you came out with," he noted.

She felt the way his fingers pressed against her ribs as he moved from one small scar to the next, taking his time with each one. "I actually got thrown through the window, so I missed most of the action. Thankfully, there were no burns, although..." she waited until he seemed more curious for where her next statement was going, before she moved his hand to her collarbone. "I did manage a compound fracture when I hit the ground, two stories down; it was bad enough that I needed surgery to realign my collarbone and shoulder."

"You amaze me, General."

"And you surprise me," Sonya returned, as she felt his fingers gently move back to her throat, as though he was still curious about the scar. "Now, I've been open about my scars and stories... What about you?"

He didn't seem the least bit phased by the question. "Take your pick," Kenshi offered, "although, I cannot guarantee that I'll remember the story that goes along with it."

She hated to admit that that was exactly what she wanted to hear.

She certainly had a lot to choose from, but she moved her fingers to the scar on his ribcage; the same one that had caught her attention to begin with. "Tell me about this one."

"That one's quite the story," he started, not even hesitating to remember it. "Years ago, I helped Hanzo reclaim himself from Scorpion. It wasn't an easy process for either of us, and the method we used was incredibly tedious and exhausting; and often times, it didn't go over so well. Scorpion had a dirty temper, and he sure as hell didn't like me being around. And this," he briefly moved his hand to cover hers, emphasizing the scar, "was the result of me being too focused on helping Hanzo, and not watching out for Scorpion's spear."

"Nasty."

Most, if not all, of the people she worked with were very familiar with the projectile spear that Hanzo threw. It was an unorthodox weapon, but it was a damn good one- and the man sure as hell knew how to use it.

"It broke three ribs going in, and then partially ripped out a fourth when it came out," Kenshi finished.

Sonya grimaced briefly at the finished story; her fingers gently moved around the scar once more, seeing it in a different light now with the new knowledge. But she didn't hesitate to move on to another- namely the scar that started just underneath his right arm and curved up across his chest. It was dark still, hinting at previous deep tissue damage. "And this one?" she pressed.

"Also from Scorpion, actually," he answered, as he touched at the scar himself. "He has a nasty back swing if you're not careful."

"Do you have any that aren't from Scorpion?" Sonya questioned.

Kenshi briefly laughed before he took her by the hand and slowly guided it to a long, wide scar on the length of his left forearm. "Here. If I remember correctly, this one came from a very large Oni, who wielded a chain and a giant orb of some kind. He caught my blindside and threw me almost twenty yards. I made the mistake of trying to catch myself too soon, and landed on this arm at the wrong angle. Not only did the bones snap in half, but they tore out through the skin as well."

Sonya slowly let her fingers run over the uneven scar, knowing well the pain of a compound fracture. "Am I supposed to ignore the fact that you said you had a blindside?"

"I was hoping you would."

She spared him with a short laugh, as she felt him move her fingers to the left curve of his neck and shoulder; he drew her attention to the long scar that wrapped around the base of his neck before it curved onto his back. "Care to explain this one?"

"Mavado, the former Red Dragon leader," Kenshi answered. "He had a pair of Hook swords when I encountered him, and he managed to catch one right here; it would've taken my head off had I not been quicker."

"Still not quick enough though," Sonya remarked.

"You're quite the critic, General."

"You're not the first person to tell me that."

He laughed once more at her quick response, before he moved to brush his fingers against her cheek; he briefly lingered against her warm, wet skin, before he tucked away a loose, blonde strand. "Tell me more about your scars; I find them far more interesting."

She was almost certain he could hear her heart in her throat at this point. "I suppose I could spare a few more," Sonya offered, as she guided his hand to the long scar that ripped across her abdomen. "Do you remember this one?"

He seemed confused on why she would suddenly question him like that, before he slowly moved his fingers along the scar. It took him a few seconds of careful tracing and deliberation before it finally seemed to click; and as it did, he slowly pressed his palm against the wide scar. "Is this... from the South America extraction?"

"We were in the back of a Black Hawk, and you had to keep pressure on that disembowelment injury Kano pulled on me," she finished.

"I still remember all of that blood, and having to keep you conscious until we made it back to one of the SF bases," Kenshi noted.

"Not exactly my favorite battle," Sonya remarked, as she moved closer to him still, before she pulled his hand down to her right hip- allowing him to feel the thick contour of skin that ran down it. "And this is where I broke a hip from a car bomb in Africa."

Kenshi followed her lead, and closed more of the space between them until their hips were almost touching. Taking her hand once more, he moved it to his waist, and gently ran her fingers along the tissue that split down to his left hip. "Do you remember when I reported to you about that helicopter crash in Russia?"

"The one that got clipped by a second aircraft and slammed into a building?" she questioned, watching as he nodded in response. "Of course; it's kind of hard to forget a story like that. We lost the best helicopter we had- and nearly lost that SF base as well, because we didn't have air support during that Red Dragon ambush the following day."

It looked as though he hesitated before he started to speak- stroking her curiosity once more.

"Well... I lied when I told you that I wasn't on it," Kenshi started, looking slightly guilty at the revelation now. "I barely avoided shattering my hip when we ran into the side of that skyscraper."

"You asshole."

"I didn't want you to worry."

Sonya rolled her eyes, and lightly punched him in the side- drawing out a short laugh from him at the gesture. Somehow she wasn't surprised; despite his loyalty, and sense of total transparency... Kenshi was a damn good liar, and an even better actor when he needed to be. Even with as little practice as he had with doing either actions. "You want to know what I was going through while you were being crushed in a downed helicopter, and trying not to scare me?"

"You're already worrying me by phrasing it like that."

She moved his hand to her right breast, briefly cupping it in his palm, before she guided his fingers to the long scar that split down the outer curve of it. "This," Sonya started, catching the very brief, shocked expression that came over him. She was certain the motion caught him by surprise; and, with how closely their hips were pressed together, she was also certain he reacted a little more than he intended to. "Kano's an ugly son of a bitch, and, as we all know, he's dangerous with a knife- especially at close range."

Kenshi seemed to hesitate, before he slowly moved his fingers along the jagged scar- barely caressing the curve of her breast as he did so. "It's... odd placement, but knowing Kano, I can't say that I'm surprised."

"You should've seen my face after the battle," she replied, feeling the subtle warmth of his fingers now moving on their own accord. "I wanted to jump out of that helicopter and kill him."

"I imagine someone was restraining you?"

"Jax," Sonya answered. "The building was rigged to explode, and if we had left two minutes later, we wouldn't have escaped the blast zone. But I'll be damned if I didn't want to chance it; Jax got to me before I could though- but I got Kano back for it the next time I saw him."

"You always do."

She smiled briefly- always a fan of the endless support, and admiration he had for her.

Her job was stressful enough as it was, being the overall head of the Special Forces for Earthrealm, so she cut corners wherever she could. One of them being that she surrounded herself with people who agreed with a vast majority of what she said; it helped her cut out time wasted arguing with someone over petty details. Hence why she preferred to have Kenshi around more than Cage, who just liked wasting her time regardless.

That wasn't to say that Kenshi didn't fight her from time to time on certain issues; he was far from being a pushover, but he always knew where her motives lied. He helped keep her on her toes when it was most crucial, and he made sure that she was always thinking with a clear mind. And he had no problems being brutally honest with her when she asked him to be.

He knew how badly this job could get from time to time, and he always knew when she needed him the most.

If anything ever happened to him... he'd be irreplaceable.

...

Sometimes it was odd, maybe even scary, to consider that, had a brief encounter not occurred between them twenty-five years ago... they wouldn't be here right now.

Fingers slowly moved to the corroded scars that surrounded his eyes- gently tracing out the thin burns that stung in the light of day. He was always open to talking about his telekinetic powers, and when pressed, didn't mind showing off demonstrations of them. And with even more urging, one could get him to talk about how his powers came to be, and how he became the person he was now.

But his eyes were still sensitive; and while he had no issues showing off the scars around them, he very rarely allowed anyone to touch them.

He allowed her to, of course- but that privilege didn't come easily. And it was something that she took very seriously.

She watched as the glowing, blue hue of his eyes flickered briefly at the touch.

"I don't think I need to tell you where these ones came from- again," Kenshi remarked.

"No, of course not," Sonya replied, as she felt the small, knotted skin underneath her fingertips. She found herself so caught up in the subtle tracing that the brief flickering of the shower lights surprised her. It didn't feel like they had been in here for that long, but... that didn't mean shit; it could've been well over an hour for all she knew. "It's getting late, and I still have a lot of work I need to finish before light," she announced, reluctantly. "But... I think there's time to share one more."

"Sounds fair."

Taking him by the hand, she guided his fingers along the thin scar that started at the outer corner of her right eye; it trailed downward, and cut over her lips, before it angled sharply to the left and over her jaw.

He traced it carefully, as he had with her other ones; the flat of his thumb brushed against her lips as he followed the less than subtle trail of scar tissue. She felt him hesitate slightly, before he moved to cup her jaw and touched at the thicker knot of tissue that had formed just underneath her lower lip.

...

She convinced herself that if there was any better time to break that annoying bind between casual and personal, it was now.

They were open and vulnerable; they had just finished exposing a side of themselves that the other didn't know about... Shit, at this point, what did they have to lose? If something didn't happen now, then they would only waste more time waiting for the other to make the first move; they would waste time waiting for one to convince the both of them that this was okay.

And... she was tired of always coming up with excuses not to.

Sure, they were both bringing a mess of problems to the table here, but... they also, on more than one occasion, had to cradle one another's guts in both hands. And if they could deal with doing that, then the rest seemed fairly easy to deal with.

"Let me ask you something," Sonya started, as her fingers lightly combed through his beard, briefly toying with it. It was yet another privilege that she had earned, not that this one took much convincing to get; in fact, she wasn't entirely sure where it had started, or rather, when she had picked it up. "... You're in love with me, aren't you?"

She felt the slight tension ease through his body at the question.

It wasn't like she had said something either of them didn't know, or hadn't talked about before. It was just that... she had said it directly, which was something they tended to avoid.

She had called him out on it.

"That's... that's a rather bold claim," Kenshi replied, seemingly off-guarded by her forwardness on the matter.

She smiled briefly at his reaction, before she pulled him down towards her and gently pressed his forehead to hers. Fingers moved to curl against the back of his neck, holding him to her, while she watched as the glowing blue of his eyes flickered once more at the sudden closeness; she wondered if he knew that his eyes, when uncovered, easily gave him away. "And yet, you're not denying it," she remarked.

He held his breath for those few short seconds, as though testing her- as though afraid to find that she was testing him instead.

But he knew her better than that.

"And what if I am?"

"It's pretty harmless," she spoke, giving a brief shrug, as she pulled him in closer still. Her lips brushed against the corner of his and she felt the way they twitched at the slight contact. "But, it's something you should take responsibility for."

"Sonya..." she heard the soft drop of her name from his lips, before she silenced him.

She pressed her lips against his, starting from the one corner before each lightly placed kiss brought her closer and closer to the center. She felt them twitch once more, and briefly separate, as though he had something last minute to say; but the words never came out. Instead he turned enough to catch her by the lips, cutting the lingering delay short.

He was warm, and firm, against her, as his hands gently moved to cup her face- pulling and holding her up to him.

Unlike every other time when they had made it to this point... there was no hesitation.

And even if there was, it didn't register long enough for either of them to notice.

Before she knew it, she could feel the warm tile of the shower wall against her back as he pressed her up against it. His body was pressed tightly to hers, anchoring her, and she couldn't help but think of all those times they had thrown themselves in front of one another- acting as a last minute shield. But instead of a powerful explosion throwing them together, it was just them.

It was just them, no longer wanting to make excuses.

She dug her fingers through his graying hair, and moaned softly at the warmth of his tongue against hers. Such a needing embrace had turned into opened lips and had exposed willing mouths eager to share more than just a simple touch and a spark of heat.

He was firm, yet subtle in his actions- leaving her in a constant need of wanting more from him.

His hands tilted her head back against the wall, and she moaned once more as he gave her just that.

And when he pulled away, she lingered on the sense of warmth that he left behind on her lips and in her mouth.

"You're right," Kenshi whispered, as he kept her pulled in close against him, "I am in love with you."

She could feel the heat of his breath on her skin, and felt the pounding of his heart against her palms as she pressed them against his collarbones. Fingers curled in lightly against his wet skin, before she reached up to pull him back to her. A subdued grin on her lips met his as she kissed him once more. "I'm always right- that's why I got this job."

He couldn't deny the short laugh that escaped him as he loosely kissed her once more in return; his hands circled around to her lower back and pulled her hips forward against his own. "Let's not forget that you're in love with me just as well."

"That goes without saying," Sonya replied, "unless you want to hear me say it."

"I do."

Of course he would.

Then again, why wouldn't he?

She moved her hands to frame his face, and held him close against her- pressing his forehead to hers once more. She felt the heat of his breath on her skin again, as her thumbs gently traced small circles against his scars. "There were times where I thought you were going to be the death of me, but... I'm in love with you, so I guess I'm stuck with you."

Kenshi kissed her once again; short, subtle and sweet.

"I could've handled it without the additional words," he started, "but at the same time, I can't dispute them either."

"Just remember Port Said whenever you think about it," Sonya remarked- enticing another short laugh from him. The second flickering of the lights above them reminded her of why she had had intentions of leaving before; just as well, it reminded her of the paperwork that was stacking up on her desk as they spoke. And as much as she would've liked to push it out of focus... she just wasn't that kind of person. "Okay, seriously this time though, I do have work I need to finish-"

He cut her off with another kiss, before one hand reached over to shut the showerhead off.

The building was eerily quiet without the water running as white noise around them. Suddenly it sounded like they were making too much noise; they were breathing too heavily, their hearts were racing too loudly- perhaps their personal stories and confessions had been shared with anyone close by. It left her feeling just a little more vulnerable than she already was.

But at the same time, it allowed her to linger solely on the heat of his skin, and the way his lips brushed against her forehead before he pulled away.

"You never told me where you got this scar," Kenshi reminded; his fingers brushing against the former facial wound they had yet to discuss.

She gave him a shrug as she pushed herself away from the shower wall and walked towards to the curtained doorway; fingers reached out long enough to grab the towels that hung just outside of the shower cell. Shaking one of the towels loose from its folded position, she draped it against her and tossed the other one to him.

"Come back to my office, and... maybe I'll let you know."


End file.
